07.16.12

Archeology from the Holy Land continues to provide insight on the timeline from that period.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Newly found coins underneath Jerusalem’s Western Wall could change the accepted belief about the construction of one of the world’s most sacred sites two millennia ago, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday.

The man usually credited with building the compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary is Herod, a Jewish ruler who died in 4 B.C. Herod’s monumental compound replaced and expanded a much older Jewish temple complex on the same site.

But archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority now say diggers have found coins underneath the massive foundation stones of the compound’s Western Wall that were stamped by a Roman proconsul 20 years after Herod’s death. That indicates that Herod did not build the wall — part of which is venerated as Judaism’s holiest prayer site — and that construction was not close to being complete when he died.

“The find changes the way we see the construction, and shows it lasted for longer than we originally thought,” said the dig’s co-director, Eli Shukron.

The four bronze coins were stamped around 17 A.D. by the Roman official Valerius Gratus. He preceded Pontius Pilate of the New Testament story as Rome’s representative in Jerusalem, according to Ronny Reich of Haifa University, one of the two archaeologists in charge of the dig.

The coins were found inside a ritual bath that predated construction of the renovated Temple Mount complex and which was filled in to support the new walls, Reich said.

They show that construction of the Western Wall had not even begun at the time of Herod’s death. Instead, it was likely completed only generations later by one of his descendants.

The coins confirm a contemporary account by Josephus Flavius, a Jewish general who became a Roman historian. Writing after a Jewish revolt against Rome and the destruction of the Temple by legionnaires in 70 A.D., he recounted that work on the Temple Mount had been completed only by King Agrippa II, Herod’s great-grandson, two decades before the entire compound was destroyed.

Scholars have long been familiar with Josephus’ account, but the find is nonetheless important because it offers the “first clear-cut archaeological evidence that part of the enclosure wall was not built by Herod,” said archaeologist Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University, who was not involved in the dig.

Josephus also wrote that the end of construction left 18,000 workmen unemployed in Jerusalem. Some historians have linked this to discontent that eventually erupted in the Jewish revolt.

The compound, controlled since 1967 by Israel, now houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the golden-capped Muslim shrine known as the Dome of the Rock. The fact that the compound is holy both to Jews and Muslims makes it one of the world’s most sensitive religious sites.

The dig in which the coins were discovered cleared a Roman-era drainage tunnel that begins at the biblical Pool of Siloam, one of the city’s original water sources, and terminates with a climb up a ladder out onto a 2,000-year-old street inside Jerusalem’s Old City. The tunnel runs by the foundation stones of the compound’s western wall, where the coins were found.

The drainage tunnel was excavated as part of the dig at the City of David, which is perhaps Israel’s richest archaeological excavation and its most contentious.

The dig is being carried out inside the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, and is funded by a group associated with the Israeli settlement movement that opposes any division of the city as part of a future peace deal.

The excavation of the tunnel has also yielded a Roman sword, oil lamps, pots and coins that scholars believe are likely debris from an attempt by Jewish rebels to hide in the underground passage as they fled from the Roman soldiers.

07.14.12

Here are the latest developments in the murder case of Sarah and Amina Said, “honor killed”, in cold blood by their Muslim father.

A private investigator who probed the 2008 case of a Texas taxi driver who allegedly murdered his daughters in an “honor killing” has appealed to the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to take over the investigation, saying local authorities have hopelessly botched the investigation.

Carrie Huskinson, who investigated murder suspect Yaser Said on behalf of a Dallas newspaper said without a fresh look from top-flight law enforcement agents, Said, who went into hiding after his daughters were found shot to death in his cab, may never be caught. Said is on the FBI’s “most wanted” list and authorities believe he could still be in the U.S. or possibly in his native Egypt.

She said cops in Irving, part of the Dallas metro area, failed to interview Amina and Sarah’s brother, Islam, or the boyfriends of the murdered teens on the night of the murders, even though they were available, said Huskinson.

Like several family members, Huskinson believes the sisters’ mother, Patricia Said, knows more than she has divulged about her husband’s actions and possibly, his whereabouts. Patricia Said, who had fled with her daughters, only to bring them back home where their father was waiting, could not be reached for comment.

Huskinson believes an investigation run by federal authorities could put more pressure on Patricia Said, which could lead to charges against her and information about her husband’s whereabouts. She claims Irving police allowed Patricia Said to remove all the computers from the house as well as documents for real estate owned in Yaser’s native Egypt after the Jan. 1, 2008, murders.

“The murders of Amina and Sarah scream conspiracy, not only to commit murder, but also to violate their civil rights,” said Huskinson.

Irving Police spokesman Sgt. Daniel Webb told FoxNews.com police do not believe Patricia Said had any knowing role in the murders of her daughters.

“Every aspect of this case was fully investigated and Yaser Said is the only person believed to be responsible for the murders of Amina and Sarah Said,” Webb said. “We have and will continue to use all available means in order to locate Mr. Said and we do so with the assistance of federal and other local law enforcement agencies.”

Yaser Said was angry that his daughters were westernized and were dating American boys. In the days before they were murdered, the sisters had fled with their mother to an aunt’s house in Oklahoma after Amina was threatened at gunpoint by her father. Amina had gotten an apartment in Tulsa and hoped to start a new life with her sister, but their mother convinced them to go back to Texas with them to place flowers on their grandmother’s grave one last time. Days later, they were murdered and left for dead in a cab in the parking lot of the Omni Hotel in Irving.

07.04.12

Freedom can be a very fleeting and easily eroded concept. Tyrants take every opportunity to chip away at our Freedoms, justifying their actions by capitalizing on our fears, real and imaginary.
Today, as you celebrate Independence Day, keep in mind what our founders wanted for our country, and what we have actually become.
Happy Independence Day.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

07.01.12

This past week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. In a complete overruling of common logic and blatant judicial activism, the court ruled that Obamacare is legal because it is a tax.
Despite assurances from the “liar-in-chief”, aka President Obama, that it wasn’t, the Supreme Court has found that it is.
Using this logic, from now on, any time the government wishes to compel the populous to some desired action and end result, all they have to is place a tax on the mandate, no matter how unreasonable the mandate is.
As an example, they could mandate that everyone drive a compact car. By placing a huge tax burden on those who don’t buy compact cars, they can, according to the Supreme Court, mandate this behavior. In reality, how many of us would be able to pay an unreasonable tax just for the right to drive a larger vehicle? Not many.
Our government has slid further down the slippery slope of socialism and huge government intrusion into our personal freedoms.
Our only hope now is to vote Obama and the liberal congresspeople/senators out of office in November. I hope the nation is up to the task this time.

(CNSNews.com) – Here’s a key element of the Supreme Court opinion, in which Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the liberals to uphold the Democrats’ health care law on a 5-4 vote:

“The Federal Government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance. Section 5000A would therefore be unconstitutional if read as a command. The Federal Government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance. Section 5000A is therefore constitutional, because it can reasonably be read as a tax.”

Reaction was swift:

The conservative Family Research Council said the ruling jeopardizes the future of liberty and religious freedom.

“The Supreme Court has today given the federal government unlimited authority to use its tax power to require Americans to engage in specific commercial activity. The obvious implication is chilling: Uncle Sam can make you buy anything, at any price, for any reason,” said FRC Legal Counsel Ken Klukowski, J.D. “That’s why today, the American dream gave way to a real American nightmare. President Obama’s vow about ‘fundamentally transforming the United States of America ‘ was fulfilled. The Supreme Court essentially said it cannot articulate any limiting principle on the power of the federal government.

“By ruling that the law is constitutional, the Supreme Court gave the federal government the power to order private citizens to enter into contracts with private organizations and give those organizations their money. This ruling fundamentally transforms the federal government from one of limited and specified powers in the Constitution to an all-powerful central government with plenary power over every area and aspect of Americans’ lives from cradle to grave.”

“Today’s Supreme Court decision will do serious harm to American families, said FRC President Tony Perkins.”Not only is the individual mandate a profound attack on our liberties, but it is only one section among hundreds of provisions in the law that will force taxpayers to fund abortions, violate their conscience rights, and impose a massive tax and debt burden on American families.

“The Obama administration has created, for the first time in American history, new federal regulations that toss aside the constitutional right to religious freedom by forcing religious institutions and employers to pay for abortion-causing drugs, contraceptives and sterilizations.

“It’s now time to replace those leaders who disregarded the constitutional limitations of their authority and the deeply held religious beliefs of their constituents, voting for the government takeover of healthcare. We must repeal this abortion-funding health care law and restore the Constitution to its rightful place.”

“Stopping Obamacare is now up to the American people,” the Republican National Committee said on Thursday morning.